Your description of a "a well-documented war plot" against Egypt in 1956 (Secrets and lies, July 11) ignores the fact that Nasser was plotting against Israel. It was his purchase of tanks from Czechoslovakia that caused western governments to pull the plug on backing for the Aswan high dam project, which led to his nationalisation of the Suez canal. In January 1956 he vowed to liberate Palestine, which was part of his long-term plan to create a pan-Arab bloc, from which Israel would be eliminated. In 1967 he finally provoked a war with Israel, only to be routed in six days. Since Suez is so similar to Anglo-American collusion over Iraq, inferences might be that Suez, though unjustified, had, perhaps, more justification than Iraq, given Nasser's anti-Israeli intent and arms acquisitions; and that since the US punished the UK for Suez by starting a run on the pound and, according to Nigel Fisher in his Macmillan biography, by refusing to allow Britain "to withdraw her own money" from the IMF until a ceasefire, we should not be in coalition with the US on unequal terms.
David Reed Northampton

There were earlier indications of Anglo-French-Israeli collusion (G2, July 10). In 1956 I was a national service officer in Aqaba with a small British force to protect Jordan from any Israeli incursion. Eilat, from which Israel launched its attack on Sinai, was four miles away. At the end of October, we watched every detail of the build-up - columns of tanks, dozens of Mystere jet fighters - but not once were we ordered to defensive positions. (Unsurprisingly, the Manchester Guardian was banned from the officers' mess.)Michael Duffy Morpeth, Northumberland